The smoking of tobacco in a pipe is a delightful pastime and is preferable in many ways to other means of smoking tobacco. One of the advantages of pipe smoking is that it usually smells better than the smoke from cigarettes and cigars. If the pipe is filled and lit properly, the smoking cycle should last for a considerably longer time than in the case of a cigarette; also, it is possible to smoke a pipe without the use of the hands, so that pipe smoking can take place while performing other tasks. However, the smoking of a pipe is not without its drawbacks. Pipe tobacco has a tendency to be coarse and non-homogeneous, so that it is sometimes difficult to keep a pipe in lighted condition. There is a tendency in smoking a pipe for saliva to work its way down the stem of the pipe and into the bowl. When this saliva takes part in the combustion process, the smoke not only has an unpleasant "bite", but the smell of the smoke which drips into the air is also somewhat unpleasant. It has been suggested that some of the difficulties experienced in pipe smoking can be removed by tamping or compressing the tobacco, and flat, round tampers have been provided in the past for this purpose, the tamper sometimes being combined with other pipe smoking tools. This process of compressing the entire body of tobacco in the pipe has not been successful in removing the difficulties and, as a matter of fact, compressing the entire load of tobacco makes the pipe difficult to draw, since the compression of the tobacco in this way causes it to present more resistance to the downward flow of air. These and other difficulties experienced with the prior art devices have been obviated in a novel manner by the present invention.
It is, therefore, an outstanding object of the invention to provide a smoking system which results in a sweeter smoke and a longer lasting burning cycle.
Another object of this invention is the provision of a smoking system in which any saliva that accumulates on a pipe bowl surface does not take part in the combustion process.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of a smoking system for pipes in which the advantages of compressing the tobacco are obtained without an attendant reduction in air flow capacity.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a pipe smoking system in which the bowl of the pipe does not become overheated, in which the burning tobacco is insulated from the tars which have accumulated in the inner surface of the bowl, and in which deterioration of the inner surface of the pipe bowl is substantially reduced.
A still further object of the invention is the provision of a pipe smoking system in which the smoke results only from the combustion of tobacco and not from the burning of accumulated tars and of ash which contains undesirable chemicals.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a pipe smoking system which is less dangerous to the health of the smoker, because undesirable chemicals are not present in the smoke.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a pipe smoking system in which the area of burning tobacco is smaller than in a conventional system, so that a bowl which is filled with tobacco takes longer to burn and the smoke is cooler.
Another object of the invention is the provision of a pipe smoking system in which burning takes place through the center of the body of tobacco in the bowl, so that burning does not burn only down one side of the bowl, so that the smoke does not contain burned ash, wood or saliva from the surface of the bowl, and so that ash and tar do not coat the bowl.
With these and other objects in view, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention resides in the combination of parts set forth in the specification and covered by the claims appended hereto.